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Cockroaches Crave Food, Water, and Warmth

Although cockroaches are associated with uncleanliness and squalor, they can enter any home in search of food, water, and warmth. These pests can fit through even the smallest cracks and crevices, and are often inadvertently transported indoors by humans. With plenty of resources and a marked lack of natural predators, human habitations are the ideal breeding grounds for cockroaches, and they can remain hidden yet thriving all year round.

Cockroaches are nocturnal pests, so even if they have established themselves in your home, you may not notice them until they’ve had plenty of opportunity to breed. Cockroaches prefer to live and breed in quiet, out of the way places like basements, crawlspaces, and even inside the cavities of walls, so even when they forage for food at night, they may remain hidden from even the most vigilant homeowner.

Cockroaches are particularly noteworthy pests because of their tendency to carry and transmit dangerous pathogens and may, in fact, exacerbate allergies. Since cockroach populations are constantly drawn to food, the kitchen is particularly at risk of become a breeding ground for cockroach-borne bacteria. Cleanliness is a vital aspect of cockroach control, and it’s extremely important to keep your kitchen, and your home in general, free from crumbs and spills.

There are a number of commercially available traps and baits that may help to mitigate termite infestations. Since cockroaches often enter homes through even the smallest cracks and exterior crevices, you may consider caulking gaps in tiles and concrete through which these pests may be entering your home.

Once these pests establish themselves inside your home, there are a few key signs of their presence. Molted cockroach skins and their egg shells are particularly noticeable, as are their fecal matter. Checking any traps on a frequent basis will also cut down cockroach numbers, and will also give you an idea of the location from which these pests are entering your home.

In a general sense, you can also take some outdoor precautions to lessen the chances of cockroaches entering your home. Make sure to maintain your lawn diligently, at least to the extent that long grass is cut down and there’s no obvious buildup of vegetation. Removing these conspicuous hiding places around the outside of your home will ensure that cockroaches won’t be tempted to make the short traversal from your lawn to your home.

Cantu Pest Control is proud to be the first company in Texas to offer a Green Shield Certified Service. Our Texas cockroach control experts are excited to offer Green Shield Certified pest services to our customers in search of a more prevention-based solution to their pest removal and on-going pest management needs while minimizing the use of pesticides.

If cockroaches have made unwanted appearances around your home, call Cantu Pest Control at 972-885-3618(Dallas and Fort Worth areas) or 713-999-3495(Houston area) and schedule an appointment today with one of our friendly, experienced cockroach removal experts.

Cockroach Exclusion Can Mitigate Risk of Infestation

One of the most effective means of cockroach control and prevention is maintaining sanitary conditions in and around your home. While cockroaches are primarily drawn to warmth, moisture, and shelter, particularly during the winter months, ensuring that your home is clean and free of any materials that may prove to be food for cockroaches is certainly and important precaution.

In fact, sanitation is so important that many roach-removal programs will likely fail if you neglect this important aspect. While some control and extermination methods, such as spraying pesticide and setting bait traps, might go part of the way towards fighting a cockroach infestation, these pests are ubiquitous and tenacious, not to mention that they can breed extremely quickly. Even a few cockroaches, if given access to food and water, can lead to infestation that can get wildly out of hand.

Cockroaches are also attracted to moisture, and will seek out anywhere inside your home where moisture tends to collect, like kitchens, basements, and bathrooms. Kitchens in particular are a critical area to keep clean, as there’s both plenty of food and water to sustain a large number of these pests right under a homeowner’s nose.

During the winter, cockroaches may find their way inside your home through even the tiniest cracks and crevices in search of food and water. While it may not be possible to seal off every conceivable opening, maintaining the integrity of your pipes and faucets can go a long way towards heading off a cockroach problem before it begins. For example, placing wet dishrags directly in the dryer or washing machine, or plugging the drains of sinks or bathtubs before you go to sleep at night will help to eliminate enticing water sources.

Another problem facing homeowners when it comes to eliminating cockroaches is the fact that these pests mostly remain dormant during the day, and they’re most active (and visible) at night while the household is asleep. However, by systematically eliminating potential hiding spots, you’ll be able to flush out these pests or, better yet, mitigate the risk of an infestation all together.

Roaches love to hide in cracks and crevices in furniture and walls, which you can easily seal up with a simple caulking gun. Homeowners also often neglect to make sure that windows are firmly closed and secured, which it one of the most obvious and yet overlooked ways in which pests can enter your home from outside.

Cantu Pest Control is proud to be the first company in Texas to offer a Green Shield Certified Service. Our Dallas termite control experts are excited to offer Green Shield Certified pest services to our customers in search of a more prevention-based solution to their pest removal and on-going pest management needs while minimizing the use of pesticides.

If cockroaches have made unwanted appearances around your home, call Cantu Pest Control at 972-885-3618(Dallas and Fort Worth areas) or 713-999-3495(Houston area) and schedule an appointment today with one of our friendly, experienced cockroach removal experts.

Cockroaches Seek Out Moisture and Warmth

Cockroaches are extremely adaptable insects and can be found in most regions throughout the world. These pests tend to live among all kinds of lawn detritus like rotting logs, leaf litter, and beneath piles of rotting and matted vegetation. Some species of cockroach have the ability to withstand extremely low temperatures while others can thrive in arid environments with limited access to water.

Cockroaches are most active at night when the scavenge for food, water, and mates. Most species of cockroach in the United States prefer moist environments and relatively high humidity. Occasionally, these pests will find their way inside human habitations, in which case they’ll eat whatever they come into contact with. These insects have remarkably generalized diets and have been known to feed on such diverse foodstuffs as cheese, leather, starch from book bindings, glue, hair, dead skin flakes, and dead animals and plant material.

Cockroaches like to hide out in cracks and crevices which provide them sense of warmth and moisture, which means that they generally make incursions into homes during the winter months in order to find more hospitable shelter. Although popular culture dictates that cockroach infestations are the result of particularly unhygienic households, that’s usually not the case. Cockroaches are drawn more to warmth and moisture, and will have no problem finding accommodations in the average, reasonably clean household.

A thorough inspection is the key to successful cockroach removal. Some important signs of infestation are molted cockroach skins and egg shells. Leaving sticky traps and checking them of a frequent basis will help to cut down on out of control cockroach populations. Many species of cockroaches can be eliminated with sprays, baits, and dusts. Likewise, some exclusion techniques like caulking cracks and crevices that may serve as entry points for cockroaches. Residual insecticides can also be effective to slowly but surely control cockroach populations. This method can be particularly effective for extensive indoor infestations.

Using a number of exclusion and extermination methods in tandem will often be your best option when it comes to controlling cockroach infestations. It’s also a good idea to keep lawns and flowerbeds well maintained in order to cut down on the number of potential cockroach hiding places.

Cantu Pest Control is proud to be the first company in Texas to offer a Green Shield Certified Service. Our Dallas termite control experts are excited to offer Green Shield Certified pest services to our customers in search of a more prevention-based solution to their pest removal and on-going pest management needs while minimizing the use of pesticides.

If cockroaches have made unwanted appearances around your home, call Cantu Pest Control at 972-885-3618(Dallas and Fort Worth areas) or 713-999-3495(Houston area) and schedule an appointment today with one of our friendly, experienced cockroach removal experts.

Cockroaches Love Easy Access to Food

Cockroaches are extremely troublesome pests and can enter buildings through cracks and crevices in the foundation as well as through drains, pipes, and ventilation systems.

Cockroaches are often outdoor pests as much as indoor pests, and have been known to infest gardens and lawns. Some experts suggest that cockroaches have the ability to transmit thirty-three different kinds of diseases, and routinely spread countless bacteria as the scuttle across floors and food preparation areas.

Apart from their ability to spread disease through the contamination of kitchen surfaces and eating utensils, cockroaches have been known to trigger asthma. As cockroach nymphs develop, they periodically shed their skins or exoskeletons. Exoskeleton particles, along with particles cockroach’s feces can function as antigens when inhaled and exacerbate allergic reactions.

When dealing with a cockroach infestation, it’s very rare that only one pest control method is used. Likewise, many follow-up inspections will be required in order to ensure that the treatment is effective.

Effective cockroach control begins with inspection. A good flashlight is helpful when trying to track down signs of cockroaches, as is some kind of flushing agent like aerosol. Keep an eye out for dark speckling which accumulates where cockroaches congregate.

Other signs of infestation include discarded skins and egg shells. These signs can help determine the cockroaches’ point of origin. The use of sticky traps can also help determine areas of roach activity. Leaving these traps in place and checking them regularly can help give an early warning and indicate a roach problem before an infestation gets out of hand.

Not unlike mice, cockroaches will maintain their hiding places within a few feet of their food source. Apart from food, roaches will seek out areas that offer warmth, moisture, and shelter. Roaches typically prefer organic surfaces like wood and cardboard.

Younger nymphs rarely venture more than two feet from their hiding places, and fully grown adults usually don’t roam more than 10 feet, which means that you likely won’t have to look far from food storage areas to find a coven of roaches.

Another important step in controlling a roach population is exclusion, which means restricting their movement and number of hiding places. It will likely not be possible to remove all avenues of movement, but doing whatever you can will nevertheless make an impact. Consider using some kind of sealant, urethane foam, or caulking material to seal up cracks in walls or under skins where cockroaches might be entering.

Cantu Pest Control is proud to be the first company in Texas to offer a Green Shield Certified Service. Our Dallas termite control experts are excited to offer Green Shield Certified pest services to our customers in search of a more prevention-based solution to their pest removal and on-going pest management needs while minimizing the use of pesticides.

If cockroaches have made unwanted appearances around your home, call Cantu Pest Control at 972-885-3618(Dallas and Fort Worth areas) or 713-999-3495(Houston area) and schedule an appointment today with one of our friendly, experienced cockroach removal experts.

Cockroaches Can Trigger Allergies and Asthma

Published on August 13, 2017

When cockroaches overtake a particular area, they are likely to contaminate food and food preparation surfaces, destroy certain materials like fabric and paper, and leave unpleasant stains and odors on any surface they come into contact with.

Both American and German cockroaches have been known to spread harmful bacteria which can lead to serious diseases if they come into contact human habitations. Indeed, they’ve been implicated in the spread of diseases like typhoid, dysentery, food poisoning, and hepatitis. Likewise, large cockroach infestations have occasionally been known to cause allergies and increase the risk of asthma in some people. Most experts agree that the severity of a cockroach infestation can be tied directly to housing disrepair and sanitary conditions.

Controlling a cockroach infestation is a tricky proposition, because there’s virtually no end to their hiding places. However, it should be noted that cockroaches are tropical and prefer warm areas that have easy access to water. You can use this information to narrow down the possible hiding places, and then begin to limit their access to food and water.

If cockroaches maintain unlimited access to food, bait traps, which a primary means of cockroach control, will most likely be ineffective. Likewise, insect repellents and commercially available sprays on their own will not be enough to eliminate an entire infestation.

Naturally, knowing which species of cockroach will aid in bringing a swift end to the infestation, as different species of cockroaches have subtly different behavior. This information will allow pest control professionals to place traps, repellents, and insecticides with as much accuracy and effectiveness as possible.

A vital step in eliminating cockroaches from a given area is to maintain a degree of cleanliness and sanitation. Cockroaches will reinvade as long as an area is suitable to them, meaning that as long as an area has enough food and water to support their needs, then will return to a spot they had just been driven away from, despite any previous measures to dispel them.

Various pesticides and sprays are on the market for use against cockroaches, but they are only partly-effective and will only temporarily suppress a tenacious cockroach population. Some devices, such as ultrasound-emitting repellents, are patently ineffective and should be avoided.

Traps may be effective against smaller populations, but care should be taken to place them where cockroaches will encounter them while foraging. Many pest control professionals recommend placing them at the junctions of floors and walls wherever suspected cockroach activity is taking place.

Cantu Pest Control is proud to be the first company in Texas to offer a Green Shield Certified Service. Our Dallas cockroach control experts are excited to offer Green Shield Certified pest services to our customers in search of a more prevention-based solution to their pest removal and on-going pest management needs while minimizing the use of pesticides.

If cockroaches have made unwanted appearances around your home, call Cantu Pest Control at 972-885-3618(Dallas and Fort Worth areas) or 713-999-3495(Houston area) and schedule an appointment today with one of our friendly, experienced cockroach removal experts.